Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g
This is a size decision rather than a flavour one. The same Smooth Medium Roast is already on our shelf in the smaller jar, and 150g is the size that stops you running out on a Wednesday. It is the jar to hand to somebody who has spent their life saying coffee is too strong for them. Anyone wanting the heavier end of the same range has the Intense Dark a few inches along.
Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, in brief.
Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant is the high-street brand in a 150g jar, a mild everyday instant for a milky mug.
A 150g jar giving roughly 83 mugs at a rounded teaspoon, medium roasted, low in bitterness and built around milk rather than in spite of it. If it keeps tasting too gentle, the Intense Dark Roast jar is the other end of the same range.
Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant is the high street brand in a jar, and the 150g size is the one to buy if you already know you like it. We stock the 100g jar of the same Smooth Medium Roast line, so this is not a new flavour to try; it is the same coffee in the size that stops you running out on a Wednesday. Instant coffee has one job, which is to be ready before the kettle has finished ticking, and the only real question is how good the cup is when it gets there.
Smooth Medium Roast is the mild end of the Costa jar range and it is deliberately unchallenging. There is no dark bitter edge, no burnt note and no attempt to imitate an espresso. It is built for a mug with milk, drunk at a desk or a kitchen table, several times a day. If you want the heavier, more bitter profile, the Intense Dark Roast jar is the other end of the same shelf, and we stock that too.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Costa
Costa is a British coffee house chain, and its retail packs exist because of the shops rather than the other way round. That gives the jar a specific brief: taste enough like the milky coffee people order over the counter that buying it for the house feels like the same decision. It is why the range is organised by how strong you want the cup rather than by origin, and why Smooth Medium Roast is the volume seller of the set. Costa do not publish a green origin list or a decaffeination-style process breakdown to us for this jar, so we are not going to invent one.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Weight: 150g of instant coffee.
- Mugs per jar: at a normal 1.8g teaspoon, 150g works out at roughly 83 mugs. Heap the spoon and you will get fewer. That arithmetic is ours, from the jar weight, not a claim printed on the label.
- Roast: medium, at the mild end of the Costa range. The Intense Dark Roast jar is the darker option if this one turns out to be too gentle for you.
- What it is not: not a decaf, not flavoured, and not a bean-in-jar hybrid. Straight instant coffee.
Ideal Serving Conditions
Instant coffee gets blamed for a lot of sins that are actually water temperature and dose. The granules are already fully extracted and dried, so nothing here needs brewing; what you are doing is rehydrating coffee solids. Water straight from a rolling boil scorches them and produces the flat, slightly papery taste people associate with cheap instant. Thirty seconds of patience fixes it.
The Everyday Mug
- Measure: one rounded teaspoon, about 1.8g, per 200ml mug. Two if you want it strong; adding a second spoon is a far better route to strength than brewing the first one hotter.
- Water: let the kettle stand for thirty seconds after it clicks, so you are pouring at around 95 degrees Celsius rather than 100.
- Order: granules first, then a splash of hot water to dissolve them completely, then the rest of the water, then milk. Dissolving properly before the milk goes in removes the gritty mouthful at the bottom.
- Stir: properly, for a few seconds. Half the complaints about instant coffee are undissolved granules.
The Strong Mug, and the Milky One
- For strength: two level teaspoons in 200ml. The roast is mild enough that a double dose reads as fuller rather than bitter, which is not true of a dark instant.
- For a milky mug: two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water, dissolved hard into a paste first, then top with 150ml of hot milk. Dissolving in a small amount of water first is the whole trick.
- For iced: two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water, stirred until smooth, then poured over a full glass of ice with cold milk.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: around 95 degrees Celsius, not straight off a rolling boil.
- Measure: 1.8g, a rounded teaspoon, per 200ml mug.
- Milk: this jar takes it well and is designed around it. Whole milk rounds the cup; oat milk suits it better than almond, which tends to thin out a mild coffee.
- Sugar: add it while the water is hot rather than after the milk, so it dissolves.
- Storage: keep the lid on tight and the jar in a cupboard. Instant coffee is hygroscopic, which means it pulls moisture out of the air and clumps. A damp jar is a stale jar.
- Best with: breakfast, a mid-morning break, biscuits, or a desk and a long afternoon.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Costa
Costa is the British coffee chain that grew from a Lambeth coffee bar to the UK's biggest cafe brand. Their retail range includes ground coffee, instant, and pods designed to deliver the cafe drink experience at home.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
The taste profile
How does it compare
Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g dissolves in seconds, which makes it the most flexible coffee in the cupboard once you stop thinking of it only as a hot mug. Six builds below cover the everyday cup, two milk drinks, two cold ones and a bake.
Made with this tea
The Everyday Mug, Done Properly
How to make The Everyday Mug, Done Properly with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.
- 1 rounded teaspoon Costa Smooth Medium Roast
- 200ml water at 95 degrees Celsius
- Milk to taste
- Sugar if you take it
- Boil the kettle and let it stand for thirty seconds. This is the whole difference between a rounded mug and a scorched one.
- Add one rounded teaspoon of Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g to the mug with a splash of the hot water and stir it to a smooth paste.
- Top with the rest of the water, stirring as you pour.
- Finish with milk, and sugar while it is still hot if you take it.
What you'll end up with: A clean, rounded mug with no grit at the bottom. The paste step is the one worth keeping.
Instant Flat White
How to make Instant Flat White with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.
- 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast
- 60ml water at 95 degrees Celsius
- 150ml hot milk
- A milk frother or a jar with a lid
- Dissolve two teaspoons in only 60ml of hot water and stir hard until it is completely smooth and dark.
- Heat 150ml of milk until steaming but not boiling, then froth it briefly so the foam stays thin.
- Pour the milk into the coffee base in one steady motion.
- Drink straight away, while the foam is still glossy.
What you'll end up with: A surprisingly convincing milk coffee. Concentrating the instant into a small amount of water first is what makes it work.
Whipped Coffee
How to make Whipped Coffee with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.
- 2 tablespoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons very hot water
- 300ml cold milk
- Ice
- Combine equal parts instant coffee, sugar and very hot water in a bowl.
- Whisk hard for three to four minutes until it turns pale, thick and glossy. An electric whisk does it in one.
- Fill two glasses with ice and cold milk.
- Spoon the whipped coffee on top and stir it down as you drink.
What you'll end up with: A thick coffee foam over cold milk. Only instant coffee will whip like this; ground coffee will not.
Iced Coffee for a Hot Afternoon
How to make Iced Coffee for a Hot Afternoon with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.
- 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast
- 60ml water at 95 degrees Celsius
- A full glass of ice
- 150ml cold milk
- Dissolve two teaspoons in 60ml of hot water and stir until completely smooth.
- Fill a tall glass to the top with ice, not halfway.
- Pour the coffee base over the ice, then top with cold milk.
- Stir once and drink before the ice melts down.
What you'll end up with: A cold coffee that still tastes of coffee at the bottom. Dissolving in a small amount of hot water first avoids the gritty finish.
Coffee Chocolate Cake Booster
How to make Coffee Chocolate Cake Booster with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.
- 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- Your usual chocolate cake batter
- Dissolve two teaspoons of instant coffee in one tablespoon of hot water.
- Stir it into the wet ingredients of a chocolate cake batter before the flour goes in.
- Bake as normal, with no other changes to the recipe.
- Taste the difference: the cake will read as more chocolatey rather than as coffee flavoured.
What you'll end up with: Deeper, darker chocolate flavour with no extra liquid. This is what instant coffee is genuinely better at than brewed.
Coffee Buttercream
How to make Coffee Buttercream with Costa Smooth Medium Roast.
- 2 teaspoons Costa Smooth Medium Roast
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 150g soft butter
- 300g icing sugar
- Dissolve the coffee in one tablespoon of hot water and let it cool completely.
- Beat the butter until pale, then add the icing sugar in two goes.
- Pour in the cooled coffee and beat again until smooth.
- Chill for ten minutes if it is too soft to spread.
What you'll end up with: A coffee buttercream that is actually coffee flavoured rather than beige. Cooling the coffee first stops the butter splitting.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Instant coffee | 100% of the jar | Coffee that has been brewed, concentrated and dried. Nothing else is needed and nothing else is added in a plain instant. |
| Roast depth | medium | The mild end of the Costa jar range. Toasted and lightly nutty rather than dark, smoky or bitter. |
| Origin | not declared to us | Costa publish the roast level but not a green origin list for this jar, so no origin is quoted here. |
| Format | instant granules | Already extracted and dried, so the mug takes seconds. You are rehydrating coffee solids, not brewing them. |
Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this barcode names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
Pack: Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g; instant coffee, caffeinated. Roughly 83 mugs at a rounded 1.8g teaspoon. Keep the lid tight once opened; see the jar for the unopened best-before date.
Costa publish this as a medium roast but do not declare the green origins, the bean ratio or the drying process to us, so none is quoted here. Certification marks, allergen advice and the exact best-before date must be read off the current UK pack.
Sourcing & blend. Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g is put together by Costa, the British coffee house chain whose retail packs exist because of the shops rather than the other way round. That sets the brief for the jar: it has to taste enough like the milky coffee people order over the counter that buying it for the house feels like the same decision. It is also why the range is organised by strength rather than by origin, with Smooth at the mild end and Intense at the dark end.
What's in Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g, and what isn't:
- In: instant coffee, and nothing else. A plain instant jar is brewed coffee with the water taken out; it needs no additives.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: this is an unsweetened black coffee product. Anything sweet in the mug goes in at your kitchen table.
- Energy: made black with nothing added, coffee contributes negligible energy. The calories in a mug are the milk and the sugar.
- Packaging: follow the current UK pack and your local-authority guidance; jars, lids and seals often take different disposal routes.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Costa Coffee Smooth Medium Roast instant, 150g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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